Between the Pages: A Bradford Press Podcast

What if one missing guest was only the beginning of a much larger mystery?
At Tumblebrook Inn, Amelia Farnsworth is preparing to welcome Tobias Greer, a celebrated travel writer whose glowing reviews can transform an ordinary destination into a must-visit attraction.
But Tobias isn't an ordinary guest.
He's unusually interested in Tumblebrook's history, its forgotten stories, and the secrets its residents would rather leave undisturbed.
Then, without warning, he disappears.
His belongings remain behind. His bed is untouched. And a mysterious note offers a chilling explanation:
"He knows too much."
In Season 2, Episode 12 of Between the Pages, host Brad Hanson returns to the charming but increasingly mysterious world of Tumblebrook with three dramatic readings from The Monarch Legacy, Book 2 of the Tumblebrook Mysteries series by Ellen Le Teace.
As Amelia, bookseller Clara Henderson, and the ever-observant Lady Grey investigate Tobias's disappearance, they uncover something far more troubling than a single missing guest.
An old guestbook reveals a disturbing pattern of visitors who never formally checked out. Forgotten records point toward a secretive organization known as the Monarch Society. And a conversation with the mysterious Mr. Lark suggests that Tumblebrook's past may hold answers someone is determined to keep hidden.
Three readings. One disappearance. And a mystery that grows more complicated with every discovery.
Along the way, Brad explores one of mystery fiction's most compelling storytelling techniques: how a single unexplained event can gradually reveal a much larger story.
What begins as a simple question—where did Tobias Greer go?—becomes something altogether different.
This episode's story question:
What happens when the answer to one mystery reveals that we've been asking the wrong question all along?
Join us for a return to Tumblebrook, where old books conceal forgotten histories, familiar faces may know more than they're saying, and the past is never quite as buried as it seems.
📚 Explore The Monarch Legacy and the Tumblebrook Mysteries series: https://bradfordpress.net
🎧 Follow Between the Pages for more fiction readings, memorable characters, and conversations about the art of storytelling.
Between the Pages podcast, Bradford Press, Brad Hanson, The Monarch Legacy, Ellen Le Teace, Tumblebrook Mysteries, Cozy mystery podcast, Mystery fiction, Book readings, Small-town mystery, Monarch Society, Lady Grey

A Different Pair of Eyes
What Happens When the Storyteller Changes?
A Bradford Press Podcast | Hosted by Brad Hanson
What happens when two characters experience the same events but see entirely different things?
At Tumblebrook Inn, Amelia Farnsworth believes she knows her home better than anyone. She knows its history, its guests, and the secrets hidden within its walls.
But there's another resident who may know the inn even better.
Her name is Lady Grey.
And this observant British Shorthair has some rather strong opinions about the investigative abilities of humans.
In this episode of Between the Pages, host Brad Hanson takes listeners back to the snow-covered world of Tumblebrook through four readings from Misdeeds and Mistletoe, a Christmas cozy mystery filled with family secrets, mysterious ornaments, hidden documents, and a danger that threatens the inn itself.
But this time, we're experiencing the mystery through two very different perspectives.
Through Amelia's eyes, an old photograph becomes a connection to her grandmother's mysterious past. Hidden letters reveal long-buried secrets surrounding the Monarch Society, and a forgotten cellar contains evidence that could change everything Amelia believes about her family's history.
Through Lady Grey's eyes, the same mystery becomes a world of unfamiliar scents, suspicious movements, misplaced objects, and humans who seem remarkably slow to recognize danger.
While Amelia searches for answers in letters and historical records, Lady Grey follows her instincts—and discovers that someone may be planning something far more dangerous than anyone realizes.
Four readings. Two characters. One mystery.
And two very different ways of understanding what is happening.
Along the way, Brad explores one of fiction's most fascinating possibilities: how changing the narrator can transform the reader's experience without changing the events themselves.
Sometimes one character discovers the evidence while another understands its meaning.
And sometimes the character who cannot speak is the one who has the most important story to tell.
This episode's story question:
Can two characters experience the same events and come away with completely different understandings of what happened?
Join us for a return to Tumblebrook Inn, where Christmas mysteries, family secrets, and one exceptionally perceptive cat remind us that understanding the whole story sometimes requires seeing it through a different pair of eyes.
Explore the Tumblebrook Cozy Mystery Series:https://bradfordpress.net
Follow Between the Pages for more conversations about books, storytelling, memorable characters, and the worlds we discover through fiction.
Between the Pages podcast, Bradford Press, Brad Hanson, Lady Grey, Tumblebrook cozy mysteries, Misdeeds and Mistletoe, Cozy mystery podcast, Christmas cozy mystery, Mystery audiobook, Fiction podcast, Book readings, Storytelling, Narrative perspective, Point of view in fiction, Cat mystery

The Secret a Character Cannot Tell
The Cost of Silence
 
What does keeping a secret cost the person who carries it?
Everyone has secrets. Some are harmless. Others carry the weight of fear, loyalty, responsibility, or regret.
But in fiction, the most compelling secrets aren't always the ones that conceal a crime. Sometimes they're the ones that reveal who a character really is.
In Season 2, Episode 10 of Between the Pages, host Brad Hanson explores the emotional cost of silence through three powerful readings from Bradford Press novels.
In The Roses Remember, Doris Finch has spent years living beneath the shadow of her family's troubled history. When a murder investigation threatens to expose secrets from the past, Doris must confront a painful question: Is remaining silent really protecting her, or has the truth she's afraid to reveal become her greatest burden?
In The Miami Connection, Sofia Ortega faces a very different dilemma. Married to a dangerous drug trafficker whose suspicions are growing, Sofia makes a decision that could change everything. For her, keeping a secret isn't simply an act of fear. It may be the first step toward reclaiming control of her life.
And in The Secret Eye, young Navy radar operator Charlie Brand helps guide damaged American aircraft safely back to the USS Lexington during World War II. But when grateful pilots ask how he accomplished it, Charlie discovers that doing something extraordinary doesn't necessarily mean he's free to explain it. His silence isn't about fear or deception. It's about duty.
Three stories. Three secrets. Three very different reasons for remaining silent.
Through these readings and his accompanying commentary, Brad explores how writers use secrecy to reveal character, create emotional tension, and challenge readers to look beyond appearances.
Why do people withhold the truth?
When does silence become a burden?
Can keeping a secret be an act of courage?
And how do we distinguish between secrecy that protects someone and secrecy that causes harm?
Following recent episodes exploring evidence, truth, and the clues readers sometimes misunderstand, The Secret a Character Cannot Tell takes the conversation in a more personal direction.
Because understanding what someone has done isn't always the same as understanding why they did it.
And understanding a character's decision doesn't necessarily mean agreeing with it.
This week's story question:
Have you ever understood why a character kept a secret, even though you believed they should have told the truth?
Join Brad for another journey between the pages, where silence can reveal as much about a character as the words they speak.
Discover the books, explore previous episodes, and learn more about Bradford Press at BradfordPress.net
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The Clue You Were Supposed to Miss
When the Truth Is Hiding in Plain Sight
Full Podcast Description
What if the most important clue in a mystery isn't hidden at all?
What if you saw it, understood the words, knew the facts—and still missed what it meant?
In this episode of Between the Pages, Brad Hanson returns to Tumblebrook to explore one of the most satisfying techniques in mystery fiction: the clue hiding in plain sight.
Through three readings featuring Amelia Farnsworth, Clara Henderson, and the ever-observant Lady Grey, Brad examines the subtle game played between mystery writer and reader. Sometimes a clue seems too ordinary to matter. Sometimes the evidence is noticed but interpreted incorrectly. And sometimes one new piece of information forces us to reconsider everything we thought we understood.
The progression is simple:
Notice. Interpret. Reconsider.
But that's where the mystery writer has an advantage.
The writer already knows where the story is going.
The reader has to decide which details matter, determine what the evidence means, and construct an explanation—often without realizing how many assumptions have slipped into the story along the way.
Following his two-part conversation with attorney and educator Russ Pearlman about evidence, certainty, and truth, Brad discovers an unexpected connection between those questions and the mysteries he's been writing all along.
Because good mystery fiction doesn't always hide the truth from us.
Sometimes it puts the truth right in front of us...
and lets our own assumptions do the hiding.
This week's story question:
Why are we so willing to believe the first explanation that makes sense?
Join us for another trip to Tumblebrook, where Amelia is following the evidence, Clara is asking questions, and Lady Grey may already know considerably more than everyone else.
Discover more books, stories, and episodes of Between the Pages at BradfordPress.net.
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What Would Change Your Mind?
A Conversation with Russ Pearlman — Part Two
What would it take to change your mind?
In Part Two of Brad Hanson's conversation with attorney and educator Russ Pearlman, Between the Pages goes deeper into one of the most difficult questions we face in an age of seemingly unlimited information:
How do we know what is true?
The conversation explores the difference between sincerity and accuracy, why motive may give us a reason to investigate but doesn't necessarily prove anything, and why the origin—or provenance—of evidence can matter as much as the evidence itself.
Then Brad puts the ideas to the test.
Russ is presented with a hypothetical video, but he doesn't receive all the information about it at once. Instead, Brad reveals the evidence piece by piece. An unknown source. A denial. Forensic analysis. And finally, independently authenticated provenance.
The video never changes.
The underlying truth never changes.
But what can reasonably be concluded from the evidence does.
The exercise raises an important distinction: More evidence isn't necessarily the same thing as better evidence.
And it leads to another surprisingly powerful answer:
I don't know.
In a culture that often rewards immediate certainty, could recognizing the limits of what we know actually be a sign of better reasoning?
This episode also marks an important new chapter for Between the Pages as Brad introduces his developing nonfiction research project, The Reasonable Citizen.
At its center is a deceptively simple question:
How does an ordinary person determine what is true?
Brad explains why he's taking that question outside his own office and speaking with attorneys, meteorologists, engineers, journalists, researchers, and others whose professions require them to evaluate evidence, uncertainty, expertise, and competing explanations.
The goal isn't to tell listeners what to think.
It's to explore how we think—and how we can become more careful about the conclusions we reach.
And there's room in that conversation for disagreement.
Agreement cannot be the price of admission.
Visit BradfordPress.net to explore our books, Between the Pages, and everything happening at Bradford Press.
Between the Pages podcast, Brad Hanson, Bradford Press, Russ Pearlman, The Reasonable Citizen, What Would Change Your Mind, truth and evidence, evaluating evidence, critical thinking, intellectual humility, provenance, authentication, corroboration, misinformation, information literacy, media literacy, legal reasoning, evidence and truth, changing your mind, decision making, uncertainty, source verification, evaluating sources, how do we know what is true, reasonable conclusions, truth seeking, critical reasoning, podcast about truth, nonfiction research, evidence based thinking, thinking critically
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When the Facts Aren’t Enough
A Conversation with Russ Pearlman — Part One
Full Podcast Description
How do you know when you know enough?
Every day, we make decisions based on incomplete information. We read articles, watch videos, listen to experts, hear competing explanations, and try to decide what the evidence actually allows us to believe.
But having information isn’t the same thing as understanding it. And having evidence isn’t necessarily the same thing as knowing what that evidence proves.
In this episode of Between the Pages, Brad Hanson sits down with attorney Russ Pearlman who specializes in law and AI Governance  for the first half of a thought-provoking conversation about evidence, judgment, certainty, and truth.
Drawing on his experience in law, Russ explores what it means to reach reasonable conclusions without having every fact, why new evidence should sometimes cause us to reconsider what we believe, and why changing your mind isn’t necessarily a sign that your original reasoning failed.
The conversation also examines a challenge increasingly important in an information-saturated world: Does having greater access to information actually make us better at understanding it?
Along the way, Brad connects these real-world questions with something he recently discovered beneath his own fiction. Amelia Farnsworth follows clues. Charlie Brand interprets uncertain signals. Max Larkin evaluates sources. Different stories, different worlds—but each character is ultimately wrestling with the same question:
How do I know what’s true?
And before the conversation is finished, another question emerges—one that may be considerably harder:
What evidence would cause you to change your mind?
This is Part One of Brad’s conversation with Russ Pearlman. In Episode 8, the discussion continues as Brad gives Russ a hypothetical piece of evidence—a video—and reveals additional information about it one piece at a time. The video never changes. But what can reasonably be concluded about it does.
Visit BradfordPress.net for books, podcast episodes, and more from Bradford Press.
Topics in this episode
Evidence and truth • Critical thinking • How we form beliefs • Information vs. understanding • Evaluating evidence • Intellectual humility • Changing your mind • Legal reasoning • Corroboration • Authentication • Media literacy • Decision-making under uncertainty • Storytelling and truth
Tags / Hashtags
#BetweenThePages #BradfordPress #BradHanson #RussPearlman #Truth #Evidence #CriticalThinking #HowDoWeKnow #MediaLiteracy #IntellectualHumility #DecisionMaking #LegalReasoning #InformationLiteracy #Storytelling #PodcastInterview #BooksAndIdeas #Curiosity #TruthAndEvidence

Season 2 • Episode 6
The Stories That Found Me: Where Stories Really Begin
Where do stories really begin?
Is it with the first sentence... or years before an author ever sits down to write?
In this deeply personal episode of Between the Pages, Bradford Press Managing Partner Brad Hanson steps away from the novels themselves to share the remarkable journey behind them. From the quiet influence of World War II radar operator Charlie Stainer, to unforgettable summers at Many Point Scout Reservation and canoe trips through Minnesota's Boundary Waters, to a simple question that eventually inspired The Miami Connection, Brad reflects on how ordinary moments quietly became extraordinary stories.
More importantly, he explores something many of us discover only by looking backward—that life's seemingly unrelated experiences often reveal a purpose we couldn't see at the time.
Whether you're a reader, a writer, or simply someone wondering how the experiences of your own life fit together, this episode is an invitation to slow down, reflect, and consider that the people you've met, the places you've loved, and the questions that won't leave you alone may be preparing you for a story you haven't yet imagined.
In this episode:
• The real-life inspiration behind The Secret Eye• Why northern Minnesota became the heart of Tumblebrook• The question that inspired The Miami Connection• How ordinary experiences become unforgettable stories• Looking back to recognize purpose and providence• Why every Bradford Press novel ultimately explores the search for truth
Visit BradfordPress.net to discover our books, explore the Between the Pages podcast, and learn more about Bradford Press.
Join the conversation and receive exclusive behind-the-scenes content through the Bradford Press Society on Patreon, and continue these reflections throughout the week on Substack.
#BetweenThePagesPodcast #BradfordPress #BradHanson #Storytelling #BehindTheStory #AuthorLife #WritingCommunity #HistoricalFiction #CozyMystery #ThrillerBooks #WritersLife #ReadersOfInstagram #BookPodcast #AmWriting #CreativeJourney #WorldWarII #Minnesota #BoundaryWaters #Purpose #TruthInStories

The Hero Nobody Sees
Why Every Great Story Needs a Companion
Every great hero has someone standing just outside the spotlight.
They're rarely the ones history remembers. Their names may never appear on the cover of the book. Yet without them, the hero's journey might never reach its destination.
In this episode of Between the Pages, Brad Hanson explores one of storytelling's most enduring relationships—the companion. Through three unforgettable characters from historical fiction, cozy mysteries, and thrillers, he reveals how the people beside the hero often shape the story just as profoundly as the hero themselves.
Lilly Hope gives Charlie Brand a reason to believe in a future beyond the war in The Secret Eye.
Lady Grey, the beloved British Shorthair of Tumblebrook, quietly guides Amelia Farnsworth toward truths others fail to notice.
Ed Harper works behind the scenes in The Miami Connection, providing the wisdom, strategy, and steady leadership that allow Max Larkin to pursue the truth.
Through exclusive readings from each novel and reflections on the writing process, Brad explores a simple but powerful truth:
Great heroes may stand in the spotlight, but someone standing just outside the light helped them get there.
This episode is a celebration of the companions who give us hope, perspective, clarity, and courage—and an invitation to reflect on the people who have quietly shaped our own lives.
In this episode:
Why every memorable hero needs someone beside them.
How Lilly Hope becomes Charlie Brand's anchor throughout The Secret Eye.
Why Lady Grey is much more than Amelia Farnsworth's faithful cat.
How Ed Harper quietly becomes the foundation beneath Max Larkin's investigation.
Why companions don't diminish heroes—they reveal who they truly are.
The timeless lesson that none of us reaches our destination alone.
As you listen, consider this question:
If someone wrote the story of your life, who would be standing beside you?
After you finish listening, take a moment to thank someone who's been the companion in your own story. They may never realize how much they've shaped your life—but chances are, your story wouldn't be the same without them.